GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney’s position on releasing his tax returns is a work in progress; it is evolving, let us say, and rather quickly, too.

Last month, he told MSNBC: “I don’t intend to release the tax returns.” His refusal quickly became an issue with the other GOP candidates. Newt Gingrich says he will release his tax returns on Thursday.

During the debate Monday, Romney said he would “probably” release his tax returns but not until April. By Tuesday, he said he definitely would release his returns in April — if he became the GOP nominee. “We’ll wait until the tax returns for the most recent year are completed, then release them,” he said.

By then, it may be too late. The GOP race may be over, and Republican voters will have been denied critical information about the man who wants to lead his party’s charge against President Barack Obama.

It’s difficult to see why Romney is so leery of releasing his returns. The voters have shown that they are not turned off by wealthy candidates; indeed, most of their presidential candidates have been rich, some of them extremely so.

Romney’s net worth, based on filings that don’t specify the value of assets but only put them within a certain range, is somewhere between $190 million and $250 million.

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USA Today put his speaking fees over the course of a year at more than $362,000, an amount that he described as “not very much,” indicating he may have a problem relating income-wise to the common man.

Romney admitted to reporters this week that his effective tax rate is close to 15 percent. The top income tax rate is 35 percent, but private equity funds, like Romney’s Bain Capital, typically reimburse their top executives so that their compensation is treated as capital gains and thus taxed at the lower rate. Many think this loophole should be plugged, but unless it is Romney can’t be blamed for playing by the rules of the game.

Going back to the 1970s, it has become traditional for presidential candidates to release their tax returns. They may find it awkward and even embarrassing, but it has become a valuable rite of transparency.

Romney should release the tax returns already. And if this year’s aren’t, as he says, quite complete, release last year’s so voters can gnaw on them until the new ones are ready.

Editorial by Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service


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